The rat and the black haired girl
by tinttloo010102
Summary: Kona Hondo, alone in life with nothing but pain as her constant companion. One day she wanders into the dark side of town and is mugged by a random stranger. She thinks she is going to die, but doesn't, no, instead she is saved by a strange boy. But what happens when both their lives are put in peril? Who will she choose to save; herself or a stranger she barely knows?


Kona, No.6, part one

**_A/N: Hello, I'm here with a No.6 story for ya'll. It revolves around my OC, Kona, and Nezumi/ Rat from the anime No.6. So yeah. I suck at these description things XD_**

**_Well, I hope you like it and stuff. Please review. I'm tired. Haha._**

_**That was the most confusing authors note ever... ;~;**_

_**I'm in a bad mood today if you can't tell. So yah. FORWARDS!**_

Kona yawned, stretching as she carried on walking. She didn't know where she was going and didn't much care, anywhere was better than where she needed to be right now, she'd rather be anywhere than in her own home.

It was at least three am by now, she would have checked but she didn't have a watch or phone. She'd snuck out her window at midnight, climbing down the winding ivy that snaked up her house. Night time was the only time she was free; as soon as her adoptive parents went to sleep she left, not coming back until four pm the next day. The only reason she could get away with that is because her 'parents' woke up late; she told them she left the house at seven am every morning to go to school, when in truth each time she snuck out she brought a rucksack with her school clothes in it.

But today was no normal day, and she didn't have her rucksack. It was Friday night, or early Saturday morning depending on which way you looked at it, which meant she had no excuse to not be in the house when her parents woke up at nine am. She knew she could always head home at eight then go back to bed and pretend nothing had happened, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She had snuck out today because she simply couldn't stand being around those animals called her 'parents' any longer. She needed this escape.

Kona hated her adoptive parents. They were mean and abusive, they didn't care anything for her, they made her do all the work round the house, never brought her anything, didn't give her pocket money. She cursed and kicked a pebble that was in her way as she remembered the reason why she'd left, why it had all become too much.

They had decided not to send her to school anymore. They said it was too expensive, too much money to waste on a worthless orphan like her. She'd been furious to say the least; school was her everything at the moment, her excuse and the place she could see her two best friends. The three of them were inseparable in school: Kona Hondo, Chaneen Harashimi and Misiko Konoah, the trio of best friends. Out of school, on the other hand, was a different story as Kona's 'parents' refused to let her leave the house, even for a second, unless it was for school. Which was another reason she snuck out every night.

Kona had screamed, yelled, complained that it was illegal to keep her from school. Her 'father' had replied with a punch to her face and that they'd home school her. Kona had given up then, heading to the kitchen to get a band aid for her face. She knew that this home schooling would never happen, so she'd just have to go to the library to teach herself. Fine, it would give her something to do when she ran away every night. After that she'd headed to her bedroom, waiting for the sound of her 'parent's' footsteps coming up the stairs, to bed.

Now she was here, roaming the streets. She had decided the library could wait for another day, right now all that mattered was the crisp night air biting at her face and the soft breeze blowing over her. She smiled slightly, enjoying the feeling. She knew she'd be dead tired tomorrow, but then again that's how it was every day. Her 'parents' would be mad, that's for sure, they'd probably get violent as well. She sighed, kicking another pebble. Life sucked.

Kona didn't hear the man behind her until it was too late. One second she was walking along the alley, minding her own business, the next she was pressed against the wall, a knife at her throat. She swallowed, causing the blade to cut into her neck slightly.

"Alright girly, give me everything you own and you live."

He moved the knife a little further away from her neck so she could move around a little without cutting her throat by accident. The new space gave her room to shake her head, opening her mouth to speak.

"I don't have anything of value I can give you."

"You're lying..."

"No I'm not. I really have nothing. None of my clothes are worth anything, I don't have a phone or IPod, nothing."

"I don't believe you brat, a kid like you wouldn't travel around without a way to contact their parents, now, would they?"

The knife was inching closer to her neck again. Kona knew she should be scared, terrified, but for some reason she wasn't, probably because her 'parents' had hurt her much more than this before, this guy couldn't phase her.

"My parents wouldn't come running even if I did have a phone to call them with, because they're both buried in some grave yard somewhere."

Kona didn't know why she was telling this man, this stranger, about her dead parents. About the mother who had died in child birth and the father who had died in a car crash. She felt a single tear leak down her face, dropping to the floor. She had said to herself she wouldn't cry anymore, that there was no use waisting time moping around when she could be getting on with her life. That the only time it was okay to cry was when she was happy. Yet now she was going against all those resolutions, and tears were falling from her eyes.

"The sympathy game isn't gonna work on me, give me the money you have in your right pocket or I will kill you."

She blinked, reaching into her pocket, surprised to find something that felt like cash there. She pulled it out and looked down at the twenty pound note in her hand. Kona was surprised to say the least; how did that get in her pocket?

"How did you know I had this? Wait... How did I even get it?"

The man rolled his eyes, before glaring at her.

"Are you really that much of an airhead? You found it lying on the floor and picked it up at the entrance to this alley."

She looked down at the note again, realising she had been spacing out for the last... However long. What the man said must be true, then. She had indeed picked the note up without realising, the man had seen and was now trying to get it off her. Kona was snapped out of thinking as she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder.

"Give me the money now, before I start getting serious and you get hurt."

She looked down, at the blood starting to stain her green sweater. The knife had torn a hole in it, and had also cut into the skin underneath that. It didn't seem that deep but it was bleeding quite a lot. She looked up at the man again, meeting his glare with one of her own.

"Let go of me. Now. This twenty pounds is mine, and it's staying that way."

Kona was surprised as the man let go, and she instantly clamped her hand over her shoulder, hoping to stem the flow of blood. Her eyes widened as the man charged her again, knife pointing towards her, aiming to kill. She stepped to the side, dodging the blade at the last second. In a second the man had spun round again, slashing at her with the knife. She stumbled back, each chop missing purely by luck.

When the inevitable happened and a blow finally did land, Kona let out a scream as the blade cut into her arms, which she'd flung up to protect her face. Blood dripped to the ground as she fell backwards, landing on the pavement with a dull thud. Her hands fell by her side, a pool of red spreading across the ground.

Through blurry eyes she saw the man above her, grinning, blocking out the moonlight and the stars. She watched as he raised the knife a final time, shutting her eyes tight as she prepared for it to come down on her throat, killing her.

"DIE!"

She heard the rush of air, the whistling of the knife flying towards her. She braced herself, ready to be enveloped in darkness, but...

...The impact never came. Kona realised where she was now, and it terrified her. She had stumbled into the dark side of town, full of gangs, criminals, murderers. It wasn't safe here, if she stayed she'd be in constant fights for her life.

She opened one eye slowly, terrified of what she might see. At what she did see both her eyes shot open, to stare at the scene before.

The man that was about to kill her lay dead on the ground, a pool of blood spreading out around him and a knife, the knife that had been abut to kill her, was buried in his forehead. The man's eyes were open wide, a look of shock still on his face.

Kona scrambled backwards, looking around for whoever could have done this. She knew it couldn't be some freak accident, which meant there was someone else here, in the alley, probably watching her right now. She moved back until she was pressed against the cold brick wall, head spinning. She realised then that she had lost far too much blood than was healthy, and if she lost much more she'd die anyway, man with knife or not.

Momentarily forgetting the other person who was presumably hiding from her view, she got to work, ripping the bottom off her jumper and tying it tightly around her shoulder, across the gash there. She smiled to herself, satisfied as the cloth didn't immediately soak through with blood, most likely because she wasn't moving around too much right now. That's when she remembered the supposed other person, and her head shot up as she heard a voice ring out across the narrow alleyway.

"Well, you sure got yourself into a bit of a scrape, didn't you? Picking fights with people isn't the smartest thing to do around here, y'know?"

She squinted slightly as somebody came in view out of the darkness, although he was still so far away that she couldn't see who he was properly.

"W-who are you? Come out of the shadows, or I'll make you!"

"See, you're at it again, making threats you'd never be able to follow up on."

Yet despite his words the unknown person stepped forwards slightly, showing himself. Kona's eyes quickly took in everything; the scruffy clothing, green hair tied up in a short ponytail, some hanging down by his ears. He was tall, taller than her by half a head exactly, scarf round his neck.

"Hey, are you gonna introduce yourself or do you need another minute to stare?"

"Hey I wasn't staring! And it's common courtesy to give your own name before asking for someone else's."

He raised an eyebrow, smiling slightly.

"Yeah? Well unfortunately for you I don't follow 'common courtesy', so it looks like you'll be telling me your name first."

She rolled her eyes, although she couldn't help herself smiling slightly, only slightly, but it was still there.

"Fine... My name's Kona."

"Last name?"

"Ah, but that's a detail, and they're unnecessary."

The smile on her face grew slightly, as she began to relax a little. She figured this guy wasn't a threat; if he was going to kill her, he would have by now, and he wouldn't be asking for things like her name. On top of that he had saved her life when he could have just let that other man kill her, which meant he probably didn't want her dead.

"Okay then, my name's Nezumi."

She choked down her laugh, hoping it sounded more like a cough. Unfortunately for her, it didn't.

"What's so funny?"

She smiled properly now, looking up at him.

"Nezumi... As in Rat?"

She was relieved when Nezumi's smile grew wider as well; at least he didn't take offence by her little comment.

"Yup, just like that. In fact, more people call me Rat than Nezumi. It's, like, a permanent nickname."

Kona stood up slowly, before realising she had completely forgotten about the other wounds on her arms. She had a cut a little ways above each of her hands from blocking the knife, they were on the top of her wrists so no veins had been damaged, thank goodness.

Nezumi noticed the heavily bleeding wounds for the first time, walking over to Kona's side and grabbing her arms to look at them. An expression of concern flashed over his face as he looked back up at the girl he'd saved.

"Hey... If you want you can come back to my place, I can get you patched up. Wouldn't want you bleeding to death on me, now, would I?"

She smiled weakly, before asking the question she'd been wanting to ask since the second this strange boy came into view.

"Why... Why did you save me? Why are you doing all this for me?"

She saw a smile grace Rat's face as he looked up at the moon, as if remembering something from a long time ago.

"Somebody once taught me that you should always help another person that can't help themselves. That it's always best to save a life than leg somebody die, even if that means you get hurt in the process..."

Kona smiled again, glad that she'd gotten an answer. Then she felt her world spin again and her vision blurred, as she collapsed into the strong arms of her saviour.

"Hey, Kona, are you alright!?"

She nodded weakly, before her eyes slid shut and she felt darkness rushing her. In her last moments of consciousness she felt herself get lifted up, held close to someone warm, and a tell-tale rocking motion that obviously meant somebody was running, whilst carrying her. She smiled slightly as she fell asleep; looked like Rat was staying true to his word, after all.

When Kona woke up, she was in an unfamiliar place, staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. The ceiling was cracked and dirty, and even though she was in a place she'd never been before, it still had a strange sense of... Of home.

"Hey, nice to see you awake."

She turned her head to the side to see Nezumi sitting on a worn down couch, looking at her. She looked him over again. The black jacket was hanging over the arm of the couch, revealing a long-sleeved green jumper.

Then she looked down at herself. She was still wearing her blue jeans but her red jumper was gone, leaving her white T-Shirt. She looked down at her arms, taking in the bandages rapped round her lower arms, then one on her right shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm awake."

"By the way, don't move too much or you'll break the wax sealing."

"Huh?"

"I burnt your cuts shut, and there's a wax sealing over them holding it all together."

"What!? How did I not wake up during that?"

"Well, you were about to die from loss of blood. It was a miracle you survived, honestly."

She slowly got up, placing her feet on the floor.

"Not moving around is gonna be annoying. When I get back home I'm gonna go to hospital and get them to stitch them properly and stuff... That is, if I can afford it..."

Nezumi tilted his head curiously, looking at the girl in front of him.

"Why wouldn't you be able to afford it? I mean, haven't you people from the main part of town got loads of money and stuff?"

She laughed quietly, before looking around her properly. She had only just realised that she was still in the dark side of town, that Nezumi was one of those people she had been warned to stay away from, one of the people her school stereotyped as gangsters and criminals. The place she was in, and she guessed it was Nezumi's house, seemed pretty small yet at the same time very cozy; from what she could tell it was two rooms, the room she was in and the opening on her right. There was a big metal door once other side of the room, but she guessed that was the entrance.

The room she was in had one bare lamp hanging from the ceiling, a worn down sofa across one wall that looked like it had definitely seen better days. Then there was the bed she had been lying on when she woke up, it was relatively small and narrow, but it had been comfy enough.

"Well, it's true, most people from the main part of town have a reasonable amount of money, more than enough to get by anyways, but... My parents are both dead, along with my brother. My Mother died giving birth to my brother, and my Dad and little bro died in a car crash when I was eight. After that... Well, after that I was in an adoption centre till I was ten. But the people that adopted me aren't the nicest people on the world, and they don't give me any cash at all. If I came home like this, all wrapped up in bandages, they'd most likely ignore it. They wouldn't give me the money to go to hospital, no way. Apparently 'a worthless orphan like me isn't worth the money' or something like that."

Nezumi frowned, leaning back in his chair. He thought that everyone form the main part of town were treated fairly, but... What was happening to Kona hardly seemed fair, did it? He stood up as well, stretching, before smiling slightly at the girl in front of him, looking her over now that he could see her properly.

Her long, black hair was down round her shoulders for once; she always preferred to wear it up, when it was down it always floated around and got in the way. It was annoying. Her white T-Shirt had a few dots of blood on it, but apart from that it was fine. She was glad that Nezumi hadn't taken it off to bandage up her wounds; there were scars there, scars left from years of abuse that she'd rather not talk about. She wasn't ready to share that, not with anyone.

She stretched slightly, looking at Rat who stood across from her. His eyes were grey, but they weren't dull like you would expect. No, his eyes were bright, shining, finding some way to look alive even with their bleak colouring.

His hair was a little strange; it seemed at first glance to be black, but she noticed that, as the light hit it at a certain angle, it was really a dark green. He had it tied up, some bits hanging down at the sides. A peculiar hair style, but it fit him perfectly.

"So..."

She asked, looking around.

"Where are we anyways?"

Nezumi smiled again, looking around his two-roomed home happily.

"This is my place. It's on the dark side of town, underground."

Her eyes widened.

"This is underground? That's so cool!"

She was immediately at the big metal door, opening it with only a little difficulty. She took the stares at a sprint, before breaking out from the musty, damp air to the cool breeze of the outside. Laughing, she turned around to face Nezumi, who was just behind her, grinning.

"What did I say about moving around to much? Scatterbrain."

He teased, poking her in the shoulder, where the bandage was. She poked her tongue out at him, laughing again as the wind picked up, her black hair whipping around her face. She reached up, tucking it behind her ear, looking up at the sun. Wait, the sun...

"Hey Rat, what time is it?"

Rat shrugged, looking back up at the sun.

"I dunno... Around three pm, I'm guessing. You were out for a while after I did the whole saving your life thing."

"Three pm!? You're kidding, right?"

Nezumi tilted his head in confusion, why was Kona so worried?

"Nope. But what's wrong with it being three pm?"

"Those two waiting for me back home, they never let me leave the house. The reason I was out so late last night was because I snuck out, I was gonna go home this morning before they woke up, but..."

He slid his hands into his pockets as the cool air nipped at his face.

"But... Why wouldn't your parents let you outside? Why-"

He was cut off by the dark glare he received from Kona, the most hostile look he had ever seen on her face.

"They're not my parents! Those monsters aren't related to me, not in any way, you hear!?"

Nezumi nodded quickly; it wasn't that he was afraid of Kona, he knew he could take her down no problem if he wanted, but he didn't want to see her angry like this. This side of her was cold and dark, and he didn't like it, not one bit.

"It's Ok, I understand. But you haven't answered my question yet.."

She calmed down, relaxing again.

"Right... Sorry... Anyways, they never let me out because... Well, I don't really know, if I asked them they'd just spout some rubbish about how they're 'saving the eyes of all those that I'd walk by' or something. I dunno. But I know for a fact they're gonna be seriously angry when I get back, I wouldn't put it past them to kill me or something..."

He raised an eyebrow, half disbelieving, half horrified. How could anyone treat someone like that? It was inhumane to say the least, and it was certainly worrying that Kona would even consider her pare- Umm, guardians- killing her. That was just plain wrong.

"Would they really kill you?"

"Yeah. They've tried too before, I wouldn't put it past them to try again."

They stood there in silence, staring out across the city. The ground that Nezumi's house was built under was in fact a hill, and they had a perfect view of the entire city. Of Yumi no Machi. (夢の街, _city of dreams_.)

That's what this place was called, this city. Yumi no Machi, the city of light, dreams, hopes and wishes. Lies. They were all lies. The place had an invisible border right down the middle, separating the light off from the dark. Hardly anybody from the light side, from the side where the truth is covered up by thick blankets of lies, knows about the dark side of the city. That's why the dark is higher up than the light; so the citizens who live the lie don't see the other side, don't know just how big their city is. Those on the dark, however, see the light everyday. It's a constant reminder that they're not accepted, that they're not part of the society. Only a few new about the dark side of town, and they were told to stay away at all costs.

Kona only knew because she'd stumbled into it a few times. She'd asked at school, but the teacher had just gone all tense and tried to skirt around the subject, only saying that it was full of bad people, killers and thieves, and that she must stay away if she valued her life.

Hehe, look at her now, standing right in the middle of the 'dark side', living, breathing, alive. Free.

"Hey Nezumi?"

"Yeah?"

She looked up at him, smiling.

"If I'm still alive tomorrow, I'll try to come back here, Ok?"

"Oh yeah? And how do you know where we are, scatterbrain?"

She rolled here eyes, still grinning after taunt.

"I'll find away, Rat, I always do. Don't you worry about me, I'll be fine."

With that she ran off, away from the strange green haired grey eyed boy that had saved her life. As soon as she crossed that invisible little border between the two halves, she stopped, turning around, trying and failing to see the hill she'd come from. She was unable too, that was the way this city was designed, so that the light side never knew about the other, couldn't see the other half of their city. But she did know; she knew about the dark side, about Nezumi, about the lies that this so-called 'perfect' city hid behind.

She ran to her house, skidding to a halt beside her door. She took a deep breath, reaching up her hand, and knocked four times, the sound seeming to echo in her eardrums.

Nezumi stood, on top of that hill, watching as Kona got further and further away. He smiled slightly as she stopped, looking back. He knew what she was looking for, and he also knew she'd never be able to see it from there. He sighed as the night got closer, the air cooling rapidly. Stretching, he turned, heading back inside, down the staircase and into his home.

He thought about the black haired girl again as he lay down on the bed, ready to sleep. This life-saving thing was tiring.

'Kona... Come back safe tomorrow... And whatever you do, don't die...'


End file.
